Tire
Age can kill you, Tire Investigation, 6 Year Old Tires Could Kill
You, How to determine the age of a tire, Aged Tires Sold as New,
Old Tires Ticking Time Bombs, Investigation reveals aged tires being
sold as new, Tires Aging Old Investigation Michael Finney Hidden
Camera Jack Cran,

PART1:
The new tire on your car may not be as safe as you think.
A 7 On Your Side/ABC News investigation has found tires
being sold as new may actually be too old -- and too dangerous
-- to be used on the roads.There
are no laws or regulations prohibiting the sale of tires
manufactured more than six years ago, but both safety experts
and many vehicle manufacturers recommend against using any
tire older than six years. The results, they say, can be
catastrophic.Jack
Crane of Danville can't forget that fateful day in 2002.
His sons, Joey and Bobby, were driving through the Central
Valley on Highway 5 when, without warning, the right rear
tire blew, the Ford Bronco flipped and rolled into the medium
strip.

"Bobby was still inside the car and without getting too
graphic, Bobby was dying," said Jack Crane of Danville.
Nothing could be done to save Bobby. He died. The teens
put the spare tire on the Bronco the day of the accident.
They didn't know that spare tire was 14 years old. "It looked
like it was in great condition. It had lots of tread. It
had more tread than the other tires," said Crane. The tread
totally separated from the tire. The Crane's said at the
time, the tire had only 2,000 miles on it. They sued Firestone
and eventually settled. "Even if a tire has been unused,
has never been on the road, and is in perfect condition,
it is degrading just sitting there," said Mike Danko, a
product liability attorney based in San Mateo. We found
a warning in an owner's manual by Chrysler: "Tires and spare
tires should be replaced after six years, regardless of
the remaining tread."
We found similar recommendations in an Audi manual and in
another by Ford-Lincoln Mercury. Video from a consulting
company, Transportation Safety Technologies, hired by an
attorney filing auto liability claims, demonstrates a tread
tearing from a tire, something safety experts say tires
six years or older are more prone to do. 7 On Your Side
also obtained demonstration video from another consultant
also hired by an attorney, Safety Engineering and Forensic
Analysis.

The
video shows what can happen after the tread separates from
a tire. We got a first hand look at what can happen when
the Alameda County Sheriff's Department put Michael Finney
on a simulator. He was going 60 miles an hour when the front
tire blew. He hit the brakes and narrowly missed the center
divider. "That's one of the main problems people have. They
get on the brakes, and like we said, that causes a weight
transfer," said Deputy Brian Frazer from the Alameda County
Sheriff's Department. Safety Research and Strategies has
been documenting accidents blamed on old tires which have
lead to law suits. "We've
identified more than 140 serious crashes that have resulted
in fatalities or serious injuries," said Sean Kane of Safety
Research and Strategies. He says even tires sitting in a
store's warehouse degrade over time, and despite that, still
end up being sold on the retail market. Investigative journalist
Brian Ross of ABC News found retailers nationwide selling
tires older than six years. We wanted to see for ourselves,
so we took our hidden cameras to tire retailers in San Francisco,
the Peninsula, East Bay and South Bay. The last few digits
of a code on the tire represent the manufacturing date of
the tire. The "459" on one tire means it was manufactured
the 45th week of 1999. We found it at a Good Year store
in San Mateo. Two other tires we saw at the same store were
six years old.

Our
investigation also found tires older than six years being
sold at used tire shops. We found a 10-year-old tire at
Tires and Brakes for Less in Oakland; a nine-year-old tire
at Hillside Tires and Brakes in Daly City; and a seven-year-old
tire at Rolling Stock Custom Wheels in San Francisco. Rolling
Stock called it a ploy to get people to buy more tires;
Hillside told us this was the first they've heard that tire
aging might be a problem; and Tires and Brakes for Less
says they only sell tires in good shape. All
three stores declined an on-camera interview. Good Year
also refused to answer our questions on camera, but a corporate
spokesman told us: "Proper storage, maintenance and inflation
of tires, not the age of tires, are the primary factors
in tire performance." A spokesman for the Rubber Manufacturer's
Association (RMA) agreed. "Our association does not recommend
a removal date for tire based on age because there's no
scientific information to back it up," said Dan Zielinski
of RMA. That claim is true. However, the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration is studying the issue right
now by artificially aging tires in a lab. Selling old tires
of any age is legal, but safety experts have pushed for
requiring expiration dates on tires and for simplifying
the codes on the tires. These are changes federal regulators
and tire companies have so far resisted. "Why would the
tire companies object to that? I do not understand and I
have a dead son. There's just no excuse for that," said
Crane.

PART2:
7 On Your Side took hidden cameras into tire retailers around
the Bay Area to find out just how old some of the tires
being sold really are. Then we visited a laboratory on the
outskirts of Silicon Valley for a look at a possible solution.
The next time you buy a tire, you might want to ask when
it was made. We went to a Goodyear store in San Mateo and
found several tires made six to nine years ago. The "459"
on this tire means it was manufactured the 45th week of
1999. Selling an old tire is not illegal, but many auto
manufacturers warn tires older than six years could suddenly
fail and cause a catastrophic accident. Jack Crane of Danville
agrees. The right rear tire on his son's SUV blew out. The
Bronco rolled over, killing his son, Bobby. "As you might
imagine, I got a little angry. I lost a son," said Jack
Crane from Danville. Federal researchers are now studying
tire aging and hope to release standards on tire performance
soon, but the tire industry says tire age is a non-issue.
"There's no information that can tell you exactly when,
just because of its age, that a tire should be removed for
performance reasons," says Dan Zielinski, from the Rubber
Manufacturers Association.

A Goodyear
spokesman told us "Proper storage, maintenance and inflation
of tires, not the age of tires, are the primary factors
in tire performance." Some
safety advocates think part of the solution may be in a
little bottle filled with RFID chips. They're already being
used by airports in Las Vegas and Hong Kong to track luggage
and they're also in use by WalMart to keep track of inventory.
The chips are read by a reader which works much like a scanner.
Sean Kane is a consultant hired by attorneys filing auto
liability claims. "The RFID chip can help us identify the
important safety issues that we need to identify, whether
the tires part of a recall, and the age of the tire," said
Sean Kane, from Safety Research & Strategies. The chip would
be embedded inside a tire, but civil libertarians are concerned.
"We all want tires to be safe. But the solution here is
to make serial numbers that are easier to read so that the
tires can be quickly checked and recalled, not to put an
RFID tag in tires that will enable us to be tracked and
monitored," said Nicole Ozer from the American Civil Liberties
Union. Alien Technology in Morgan Hill has been developing
RFID tags since 2001. "In the end, what really matters is
does the technology provide you with more benefit or not.
If it does, it will be adopted by people, and if not, people
won't want it," says Scot Stelter of Alien Technology. A
push in Congress to force better disclosure about the age
of a tire was defeated a few years ago under fierce industry
opposition.

Determining
the Age of a Tire

When
it comes to determining the age of a tire, it is easy to
identify when a tire was manufactured by reading its Tire
Identification Number (often referred to as the tire’s serial
number). Unlike vehicle identification numbers (VINs) and
the serial numbers used on many other consumer goods (which
identify one specific item), Tire Identification Numbers
are really batch codes that identify the week and year the
tire was produced. The U.S. Department of Transportation
(DOT) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
requires that Tire Identification Numbers be a combination
of the letters DOT, followed by ten, eleven or twelve letters
and/or numbers that identify the manufacturing location,
tire size and manufacturer's code, along with the week and
year the tire was manufactured.

Tires
Manufactured Since 2000

Since
2000, the week and year the tire was produced has been provided
by the last four digits of the Tire Identification Number
with the 2 digits being used to identify the week immediately
preceding the 2 digits used to identify the year.

Example
of a tire manufactured since 2000 with the current Tire
Identification Number format:

While
the entire Tire Identification Number is required to be
branded onto one sidewall of every tire, current regulations
also require that DOT and the first digits of the Tire Identification
Number must also be branded onto the opposite sidewall.
Therefore, it is possible to see a Tire Identification Number
that appears incomplete and requires looking at the tire’s
other sidewall to find the entire Tire Identification Number

The
use of a partial Tire Identification Number on the one sidewall
(shown above) reduces the risk of injury to the mold technician
that would have to install the weekly date code on the top
sidewall portion of a hot tire mold.

Tires
Manufactured Before 2000

The
Tire Identification Number for tires produced prior to 2000
was based on the assumption that tires would not be in service
for ten years. While they were required to provided the
same information as today’s tires, the week and year the
tire was produced was contained in the last three digits.
The 2 digits used to identify the week a tire was manufactured
immediately preceded a single digit used to identify the
year.

Example
of a tire manufactured before 2000 with the earlier Tire
Identification Number format:

In the
example above: DOT EJ8J DFM 408 DOT EJ8J DFM

DOT EJ8J DFM

408

40 Manufactured during the 40th week of the year
8 Manufactured during the 8th year of the decade

While
the previous Tire Identification Number format identified
that a tire was built in the 8th year of a decade, there
was no universal identifier that confirmed which decade
(tires produced in the 1990s may have a small triangle following
the Tire Identification Number to identify the decade).

And
finally, hold on to your sales receipt. Most tire manufacturer's
warranties cover their tires for four years from the date
of purchase or five years from the week the tires were manufactured.
So if you purchase new tires that were manufactured exactly
two years ago they will be covered for a total of six years
(four years from the date of purchase) as long as you have
your receipt. If you lose your receipt, your tires' warranty
coverage will end five years from the week the tire was
produced (resulting in the tire manufacturer's warranty
coverage ending only three years from the date of purchase
in this example).